Tuesday, August 23, 2005
"I must break you"
While one can access Dailykos through a sidebar link from this blog, I don't do that very often. Kos, for the most part, fights the good fight and during the election year, the blog was a valuable source of campaign information. It was also something of an echo chamber, though less so than mydd. Still, after the election ended, I found the echo chamber dynamic of these blogs a bit wearisome.
So, it is with profound weariness that I read of Kos's pronouncement:
The thing about political weblogs is that having ones own soapbox provides a real temptation to indulge in hyperbole or blowhard-like rhetoric. Kos should know this better than most after he posted - after the March 2004 lynchings of four Blackwater contractors in Fallujah: "I feel nothing over the death of merceneries [sic]. They aren't in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them." This was a low and illiberal moment for a liberal blog.
Kos's moment of rage came over the DLC speaking against setting a deadline for an Iraq withdrawal. The notion that there needs to be a unified party position on this is troubling - not least because many reasonably think that setting a deadline is bad policy. It's certainly possible that a withdrawal date might be the kick in the pants that an Iraqi government might need to get its house in order - but a withdrawal date set by the Congress alone runs the risk of repeating the abandonment of Southeast Asia in the early 1970s, but with far worse results. We can't let Iraq become a terrorist cancer center. Kos may not like it, but the case against a premature withdrawal is not one he can dismiss with a few sentences.
The liberal blogosphere has experienced moments of sheer giddiness in the last few years - first over the Dean candidacy, then over its fundraising role in the election, and then again over Dean candidacy in the race for DNC chairman. With that has come a remarkable joie de combat that strikes an infrequent reader like myself as being a bit compulsive. Kos - better than the orthodox bloggers of mydd - understands the need for the Democratic Party to compete in all 50 states. It's therefore puzzling why he is so intent on making foolish pronouncements about the demise of the DLC. Liberal Democrats have a very hard time wrapping their heads around the notion that our party is a big coalition in which moderates or even semi conservative folk play a vital role. We may have very nasty internal disagreements, but it's good to remember whose team everyone is ultimately on. The issues that so convulse the blogosphere aren't going to be resolved overnight and there will be no victory over an organization like the DLC with its own base and resources. Kos might as well take on the black caucus, while he's at it. This sort of thing weakens my own appreciation for political blogging - making it seem like a lot of sound and fury signifying . . . well a lot less than it promises.
So, it is with profound weariness that I read of Kos's pronouncement:
- Two more weeks, folks, before we take them on, head on.
No calls for a truce will be brooked. The DLC has used those pauses in the past to bide their time between offensives. Appeals to party unity will fall on deaf ears (it's summer of a non-election year, the perfect time to sort out internal disagreements).
We need to make the DLC radioactive. And we will. With everyone's help, we really can. Stay tuned.
The thing about political weblogs is that having ones own soapbox provides a real temptation to indulge in hyperbole or blowhard-like rhetoric. Kos should know this better than most after he posted - after the March 2004 lynchings of four Blackwater contractors in Fallujah: "I feel nothing over the death of merceneries [sic]. They aren't in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them." This was a low and illiberal moment for a liberal blog.
Kos's moment of rage came over the DLC speaking against setting a deadline for an Iraq withdrawal. The notion that there needs to be a unified party position on this is troubling - not least because many reasonably think that setting a deadline is bad policy. It's certainly possible that a withdrawal date might be the kick in the pants that an Iraqi government might need to get its house in order - but a withdrawal date set by the Congress alone runs the risk of repeating the abandonment of Southeast Asia in the early 1970s, but with far worse results. We can't let Iraq become a terrorist cancer center. Kos may not like it, but the case against a premature withdrawal is not one he can dismiss with a few sentences.
The liberal blogosphere has experienced moments of sheer giddiness in the last few years - first over the Dean candidacy, then over its fundraising role in the election, and then again over Dean candidacy in the race for DNC chairman. With that has come a remarkable joie de combat that strikes an infrequent reader like myself as being a bit compulsive. Kos - better than the orthodox bloggers of mydd - understands the need for the Democratic Party to compete in all 50 states. It's therefore puzzling why he is so intent on making foolish pronouncements about the demise of the DLC. Liberal Democrats have a very hard time wrapping their heads around the notion that our party is a big coalition in which moderates or even semi conservative folk play a vital role. We may have very nasty internal disagreements, but it's good to remember whose team everyone is ultimately on. The issues that so convulse the blogosphere aren't going to be resolved overnight and there will be no victory over an organization like the DLC with its own base and resources. Kos might as well take on the black caucus, while he's at it. This sort of thing weakens my own appreciation for political blogging - making it seem like a lot of sound and fury signifying . . . well a lot less than it promises.
